henripootel

Funny you should say that - the most egregious manipulation I remember from the AR concerned exactly this. Can't remember the season but they were down to 3 teams, and one team managed to make it to a flight to the final destination which would have given them an unbeatable lead. There was still stuff to do there but they'd have been like 12 hours or something, which is hard even to correct with the usual bunching. If the edit is to be believed (a mighty big if) the team celebrated as the plane pulled away from the gate, and the next team arrived just in time to watch it go. Then for some strange reason, the plane returned to the gate for ... reasons. So it was either bullshit editing of an event that never happened, or that flight did something I've never seen a commercial flight do. I mean I've had them go back to the gate after an extended weather delay, but that took hours. It really stank of producer interference but I just can't imagine how they'd have gotten an airline to do this. Hard to be sure - always seemed like the AR tries hard to keep their manipulations subtle. Unlike ... I have to agree, they're not really trying all that hard to hide their machinations. I've always assumed that they were leaving out stuff and whatnot to tell the story they wanted to tell but it was way later that I was pretty sure they're picking winners. My only real question now is how far they'll go. I don't think they stuffed the ballot box for Ben but I do think they wanted him in the final 3 real bad. I doubt they fixed the fire task for him but I'd bet they knew damn well that Ben would be good at it. Also think that if and when Survivor does start flat-out stuffing ballot boxes we'll be able to tell, and it'll be the end of the show. Outright scripting always leaves a distinct odor so let's hope they don't go that far. Unpopular opinion but I thought those time-limit advantages might be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, as in the past, they didn't really amount to much. And you're right, Ben's run wasn't wholly unprecedented but it was a bit out there. What really put me off though was the attempt to show that Ben actually deserved all his 'luck' because he was pretty much the only one out there 'hustling'. I recall that they've tried this before, implying that one character was doing all the work, only to hear from other contestants later 'oh, we were out there looking too, they just didn't show it.' When they start trying to convince me that absolutely nobody else had any idea so-and-so had an idol, making for a HUGE REVEAL, I wonder what really happened.

I'd be lying if I said I'd been paying that close attention, but it seemed to me that it wasn't so much Ben (although he was personable enough, vet and all) as 'an obvious winner'. Even the edit made it clear that Ben was doomed for the last several votes, but that's boring. I think Ben was simply the recipient of an 'underdog arc', where the guy who can't possibly win does so, by pluck, determination, and a bit of luck. Which in Survivor meant (I think) a few helpful nods towards places where HIIs could be found, and a bit of last-minute 'twisting' to give him a fighting chance when he was toast toast toast. #bigmoves, #hugeblindside, #thisSeasonsBeenDullTimeForSomeMassaging.

This has come up before so I'll keep it brief - there's essentially no reason to suspect that the presence of the S&P folks means that production keeps it's fingers off the scale for everything. If production decided that the Game Show rules in any way apply to reality shows like Survivor (a very big IF - nobody wants to test this in court, and I mean nobody), then they could well have S&P there to monitor the only part of the game that is purported to be a game of 'skill or luck' - the challenges. Jeffy himself has made somewhat odd claims along these lines. I remember reading (long ago) an interview where somebody essentially asked if they rig things and Jeffy's answer was 'oh no, we have S&P out there monitoring the challenges.' That's not what they asked, and I thought it strange that he'd frame it that way. There was another piece written by Linda Holmes back in the day, who convincingly argued that even if the game show rules apply to reality shows, there's no reason why they'd apply to the entire show. In other words, the challenges might be on the up and up while the actual winner of the show might be (a least partially) predetermined, and it'd be all legal as church. Just saying 'S&P is in some way involved' is not the same as saying 'production does nothing to help some players over others'. After years of viewing, I'm kinda convinced that this is correct. I'd bet anything that the challenges are mostly on the up and up (with a few caveats) but that production has ways of helping out players they want to win. The many HIIs Ben found more than raised my eyebrows, but the final 'advantage' seemed anything but. It actually hobbled Chrissy's ability to do what she would most certainly have done - gotten rid of Ben. If anything, the advantage was for Ben (and only Ben), as, had anyone else won, they'd have gotten rid of Ben too. It put Ben's fate back into his own hands when 3 times out of 4, he's dead. Had Ben won, it would have stymied his own ability to eliminate his biggest opponent, but this raises the question of whether Ben even had one. Was there any reason to believe that Devon would have beaten him for votes? If not, this final twist seems to have had one purpose and one purpose only, to throw Ben a lifeline. Call it conspiracy theory if you want, but there's no valid reason to conclude production can't do this kinda thing and good reason to suspect that they do when it suits them. On some reality shows producer interference isn't even a question, but there's always a few who think Survivor is the exception, pure as snow. I'm guessing not.

That's what we're supposed to buy, yes. Is there solid reason to believe it's true? That shot of him finding the idol and crowing about it 10 feet from people who supposedly know nothing about it, coupled with his 'amazing skills' at finding exactly what he needs precisely when he needs to (for 'maximum drama'), twice in a row, just pings my bullshit radar like few things have. Agree with whomever called this season a bit too manufactured - the contrivances have been a bit too much. That said, I don't care that Ben won. I guess I could have just stopped with 'I don't care'. Not a great season.

Ding ding ding. I'd prefer they kept the idols to a slow trickle but letting them persist too long allows them to be a substitute for having a strategy. That they should not be.

That's a fair reading of the right or wrong of it, but I'd remind that Probst is perfectly capable of withholding pertinent info to the benefit of a single player. I'm thinking of Tony the Cop and his Super-HII, and non-reveal of its expiration date. It might have actually been a bit more interesting if Probst hadn't said if it was real before the vote. Question to our Survivor scholars: has this ever happened before? As soon as they made clear that Ben failing to find it meant Ben was for sure going home, I knew Ben would find it. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the HIIs ruined Survivor but I do think they're going too far with them. I know they're trying to avoid votes where the outcome is obvious but the game really has turned to 'HII Hunt'. I think this should be an adjunct to good strategy, not a strategy unto itself.

Such was my assumption too. Seems to me that the best way to do this would be to make a fake and wrap it up in the cover from a legit idol (assuming you can lay hands on one), then 'hide' it badly for someone to find. Question: has anyone done this? If not, I wonder if they're being told not to. Seems like it'd be legit to me. Surprising how fast he gets on ones tits. He really seems determined to be 'memorable'.

Never gonna do it. The HII is one of the prime producers of the beloved #BLINDSIDE!, many of which are ... not actually blindsides. They're also a standard pagong-buster, and (it has crossed my mind more than once) an easy way to give a doomed player a second chance at life, likely by sending a PA to stare pointedly at some log or random patch in the sand. Without them we'd be back to just good ole alliance making and maintaining, which I'll admit can get pretty boring week after week. They are getting ridiculously common but I'll give the producers credit for trying new things, although many of them (the extra vote, the idol of power) turn out to be useless.

No belief necessary - Qhorin flat out said this, and it was obvious from the context. I was just countering the idea that Jon is incapable of doing a single thing that even might be interpreted as 'dishonorable'. Jon did a hard thing when he needed to, he's clearly capable of shutting the hell up in front of an enemy.

That Halfhand would like a word with you. I know, Qhorin was gonna be killed anyway so John was showing him a bit of kindness, but so was that peasant guy. Jon is capable of lying, if not comfortable with it or good at it. I honestly see no other deal that Tyrion should have offered than this: tell Jamie to bundle up Cercei in a rug and take her back to Casterly Rock. They'll be allowed enough staff to fend off the barbarians and cook but no longer play a part in governing the realm. You have 1 day to comply. In one day and one minute, the Red Keep will melt around you from dragon fire.

So many good things, so many bad. Why does Cercei care if John adds his thousand men to the fucking nightmare that is the Dothraki, the horror show that is the Unsullied, and the completely sphincter-straining terror of dragon fire? Suddenly the northmen are a deal breaker? Odd that it's Cercei who also understands the heart of the matter. She can't ever ever support Dany, nor can she oppose her, so let the Night King deal with her first. Why in god's name would anyone think Cercei would do anything other than this? Nice to see Italica again - walked around the spot where they filmed the big meet up. And the Ice Dragon was fucking awesome. Also nice of Bran to get out of the tub and straighten a few things out. Missing end credit sequences: Euron meets with the Golden Compass representative, heaves bag of gold on the table. Euron: There's your deposit. You'll need gear to fight Dothraki, Unsullied, and dragons. Oh, and also an army of zombies. Golden Compass guy blinks twice, pushes bag back across. Back at Winterfell. Bran: Got some news for you Jon - you're real name is Aegon Targaryen, which makes Dany your paternal aunt. Probably shoulda mentioned that before you guys boned on the boat. All in the Great Room look slightly sick.

She is a despot, or seeks to be one. What you (and Tyrion) mean is that she'd be an unpopular despot. That would change with a few years of good rule, starting with defeating the WWs. And I'm not saying Dany should kill all the civilians in King's Landing, not if that's not necessary. But killing civilians shouldn't stop her. If she can't focus her attention on the Night King, everybody's doomed.

Wasn't suggesting that Dany fly her entire army up for a bit of recon, just herself. She'd have been back on Dragonstone before anybody knew it. But then with the teleporting armies they have in Westros these days, who knows.

Hey, game of thrones, you win or you die. But I think Olenna was blindsided by Cersei's move because it was the stupidest thing ever. In the face of an imminent threat from Dani, Cersei sent a large proportion of her army far from King's Landing, trusting for some reason that Dany wouldn't find out and immediately attack. I know Cersei needed the money for the Iron Bank but she also would know that she was unlikely to get it all the way back to King's Landing. If anybody found out what was going on, all it'd take to totally fuck this plan is (as we saw) 1 dragon or a hoard of dorthraki, or both. That whole campaign had to have taken months but these guys showed up like hours too late. It was a stupid plan, and the only reason it worked was that it was protected by plot fog. This isn't a normal winter, even for Westros. This one is so cold the WWs are actually on the move, and with them comes deeper cold. No way that lake isn't frozen right to the bottom. Not for nothing but Michigan has nearly frozen over in the recorded past, and totally froze over if you go far enough back. It was once under a solid 1000 feet of ice - I think the winters in Westros were probably more like this, particularly that far north. Not enough time to form huge glaciers but cold enough to make a Chicago winter seem cozy. Hard to imagine - I've been in Chicago in winter, and it was fucking awful.

Disagree. One quick recon flight should have been enough to convince Dany that there was indeed a big army of what looked like (from 1000 feet up) dead folks, plus some guys on horses. Seems like that would have been enough, plus there would have been no need for Jon to go all dumb-ass and get a dragon killed. True, but it did highlight how dumb this all was in so many ways. A lake with thin ice? When winter is in full swing? Also, pretty heads-up for the dead to realize the ice was now solid enough to cross. And if you're thinking it was the Night King who realized it and set the dead in motion, why did he wait in the first place? Don't the WWs bring the cold with them? Why didn't he just freeze everything up nice and firm in the hours and days of the standoff? Not for nothing, but if I'm standing there for days freezing my ass off, I'm at least gonna warm my hands over Dondarrion's flaming sword. Light 'er up, Beric.